Pasadena Council Selects Webb as Interim City Attorney

Pasadena prosecutor Tracy Webb is used to dealing with gang members, but now she must tackle another, at times, unruly group--the Pasadena City Council--as she takes over as interim city attorney today.

Webb was selected this week by the council in a closed-door session to replace departing acting City Atty. Cristina L. Talley until a full-time city attorney is recruited, officials said.

“I appreciate the faith the City Council has placed in me,” said Webb, who will head both the city prosecutor’s and attorney’s offices until the council hires a new city attorney.

Webb said she has no interest in the full-time position.

“I’m a prosecutor. I love my job. I am doing it to be a team player,” she said.

Talley, who resigned last week, departs today to become Anaheim’s second-ranking attorney after nearly two years as head of Pasadena’s legal arm that continues to be haunted by a discrimination lawsuit by four former and current female staff lawyers.

Councilman William E. Thomson Jr. said Webb was the natural choice given the office problems. “We’ve got part of the office in litigation and you have some of the lawyers implicated in the allegations and it wouldn’t make any sense to have them manage the office day to day,” he said.

Webb earns about $100,000 annually and city officials have yet to decide how much she will now be paid. By comparison, Pasadena’s top scale for city attorney is $113,000 and Talley as independent contractor received more than $150,000 annually.

Webb, a 38-year-old Pasadena resident, said she will split her time between the two offices.

Four female attorneys--Ann H. Higginbotham, Ann S. Rider, Carolyn Y. Williams and Julia L. Weston--filed a lawsuit in April 1995 alleging that previous City Atty. Victor Kaleta discriminated against them by failing to include them in a round of promotions in 1992. Kaleta denied the allegations, but resigned in August 1994 under fire from the NAACP and women’s groups.

The council brought in Talley to restore the office’s stature, but the suit alleges that she continued the discrimination against female lawyers and laid off Weston in retaliation for her complaint. Talley said the allegations are unfounded.